The Most Hated Gringo in the World Report – 16

Gringos Targeted in Crime Attacks

So, you may be tempted to ask, why are articles warning of crime against Gringos listed in The Most Hated Gringo in the World Report?

The answer is very simple. The Gringos in Guanajuato don't believe crime happens here. Just like when they move here and are instantly enveloped in this delusional fantasy that living in Guanajuato is like living in Heaven, they refuse to believe any sort of danger awaits them. So convinced are they of this delusion that they will do things like walk home after midnight expecting absolutely nothing to happen to them.

Writing The Plain Truth about Living in Mexico so upsets their delusional cart that they resort to hating me, sending me emails full of death wishes, and death threats.

Recently, one of the Gringos decided it safe to walk home in the middle of the night after some social event. She was attacked. Whether this was a premeditated robbery-at-gun-point remains to be seen. However, not only was she robbed but this elderly woman was injured in the assault. These guys were waiting on her street, after midnight, and were armed with a handgun. Correct me if I am wrong, but carrying a handgun in a country where they are cost prohibitive, not to mention illegal, to own doesn't seem part of normal Mexican evening wear.

They planned an attack on someone.

This used to be the prevailing attitude in San Miguel de Allende—Nirvana Paradise—until the serial rapist began targeting Gringo women. He had worked as a locksmith assistant in America. When forced to return to Mexico, he had no problem entering locked houses. His confessed motive was that he wanted to target Gringas out of revenge for how he was treated in the States. He targeted Gringos.

"Since the unprecedented shooting of a young man at the Sanmiguelada in September in San Miguel de Allende, we have had more armed assaults during the month of November. An expat couple were robbed at gunpoint in the historical center at the beginning of the month."
(Source)

Another San Miguel Story of Gringos being targeted is when two American gay men were attacked. Here is their account:

"A month ago we had a robbery, which turned into a brutal, attempted murder on Sollano Street in centro.

Two Mexicans in their mid twenties appeared at our door at 9pm on Wednesday the 12th of December. They insisted that they knew us and had just returned from a long trip to Chicago. Since they asked for me by my legal name James Castro we were suspicious, however, they seemed convincing after a few minutes of conversation. We decided to meet them at the door and ultimately let them in to discuss how we had met.

They were polite and appeared educated and genuine. After 10-15minutes they became violent. We were discovered the next morning locked in our wine cellar. Both of us were severely beaten and barely able to move. The next morning, Wesley was able to make enough noise to get the attention of our staff. I was found with a noose around my neck and rolled up in a tarp. The doctors later discovered that I had lost half of my blood. We are both lucky to have survived.

The criminals somehow loaded all of our televisions, computers and other electronics including a heavy safe into their vehicle on Sollano.

After spending a week in the hospital and a few weeks recovering we have decided to publicly share our story. Our mistake was clearly in being trusting. We are now taking the precautions necessary to protect ourselves and want to provide awareness to others.

We are not immune in San Miguel de Allende to some of the crimes that have occurred elsewhere in Mexico. Our experience has been devastating. We greatly appreciate the love and support that has been demonstrated by our friends in San Miguel. We will be forever grateful.

The city has not responded to our situation and, after a month, has made no progress on our case. We are frustrated by the legal system here but will continue to do what is necessary to find the criminals."

I've written before about the time when we walked into the kitchen to find a Mexican trying to squeeze his way through the bars over the window. Once the police left and the neighbors armed with kitchen knives left, I spoke with our landlady.

When I asked what this guy's motive could have been she replied that because we are gringos, he would have thought the house was loaded with treasures that he could sell for drugs, booze, or whatever. My quick retort was, "We are not rich." To which she responded, "But you are Gringos."

That was my very first lesson in the Gringo Targeting Scam in Guanajuato.

The next lesson came when I received an email from a Mexican woman in her twenties in response to an article I wrote on this crime issue. She told me that from a very young age she was taught by her caregivers that if she learned English, she could more easily rip off the Gringos.

Targeting? You bet.

Another lesson was in the kitchen of another young Mexican woman who is married to a Gringo. She said she was taught from a very young age that the Gringos are there to be exploited and she was taught how to scam the gringo.

Targeting? You make the call.

In today's news, the headline reads:

U.S. Tourist Killed in Machete Attack - Guatemalan robbers armed with machetes hack Alaska man to death, seriously injure his wife aboard couple's sailboat…Read Story Here

On Sunday, the wife and I were walking to the store when a car screeched to a halt beside us. There were two men in their late twenties or early thirties in a nice looking car. In heavily accented English, they asked if we wanted a ride. We said no. They then went into this song and dance that they knew us, they were our neighbors on a street we no longer live on, and were insistent that we get into their car. I said no again and kept walking.

I can recall faces and the voices associated with those faces with uncanny accuracy. I can recall names if I make a mental motion picture associating the face and the voice with the name. I am blessed/cursed with a somewhat photographic memory. I remember things, even text, in pictures.

I had never seen or heard these two men before in my life.

They also mentioned living on a street we not only haven't lived on in years, but when we did live there, we knew all the people who lived on the street.

They weren't our neighbors then or now.

Gringos in this town will go to the extreme of wishing me death for making commentary on the darker side of living in Mexico or telling me I need help for my paranoid fear.

You make the call whether you would want to be informed on the real life in Mexico or just the stuff of which delusional fantasies are made of.

Truth will inform you; fantasy could get you killed.

Rest assured that none of those who want to get you to stay in their B&B, hotels, eat in their restaurants, buy their houses, are going to tell you one inkling of the darker side of living or even visiting Mexico.

The proof?

1. In a Spanish School close to where I live, the attacks on the American female students are so common in their specific targeting that it has a name: GROPE AND GO.

2. Take a look at all the Gringos who come here and engage in risky behavior they would not dream of doing in their home city and state. The criminal element in this town counts on the naivety of the Gringa thinking this is a paradise with no snakes in the garden.

3. Gringos are routinely targeted in the tourist area with The Mustard Scam. We would have never heard about it unless warned by the local Mexicans aware of this scam that specific targets Gringos.